Flickr Photo Champs; The Best Of Readers’ Photostreams Page 2

www.flickr.com/photos/pixbytommy
Laurel, Maryland’s Tommy Lynch shows off his extraordinary talent and versatility in his 23 sets of images. One of the big deals about Flickr is that there is no “about the photographer.” You can be a Nobel laureate or a barista—it doesn’t matter—it’s all about the images. When I visited, a few photographs from his first senior shoot were displayed. These images show an assured and creative photographer not encumbered by the clichés that abound in this genre. His monochrome image of a young woman at the mouth of a tunnel fulfills all the needs of a senior portrait yet exceeds it in so many ways. Underneath the black-and-white shot is a color image of the same student that enhances the obvious sweet nature of the subject. Two very different photos of the same young woman made by one wonderfully talented photographer.

Similarly, his “Portraits” set is full of people pictures that show a remarkable ability to use directional lighting that transcends the ordinary. Don’t miss “Midnight Rider” or his Jim Morrison-like “Portrait of Ryan” that can also be found in his “Black & White” set. I peeked into his “Baltimore” set because I grew up there and it includes his first try at HDR (which later manifests itself as its own don’t-miss set). While his Baltimore is very different than mine, he occasionally manages to get away from the scenic Inner Harbor to show the working Port of Baltimore. These images are memorable for their use of color and strong composition. That’s true of Lynch’s entire oeuvre, which combines a unique vision with occasional splashes of technical virtuosity.

© 2010, Tommy Lynch Photography, All Rights Reserved

www.flickr.com/photos/isabelle_ann
I like photographs of horses but I’ve never seen anything like Isabelle Ann Green’s fusion of painting and photography. Forget all that stuff about “painterly” images, Green’s work is clearly photographic but then again, it’s not. But there’s more here than just technique; her considerable technical skills are blended with an ability to capture all kinds of images from blow-you-away landscapes to portraits that run the scale from every day to magnificent. Green’s images are collected in sets that feature everything from “Dogs and Cats” to 157 images in “Arts and Graphics” that take her photo/painting fusion and move it into a full-blown fantasy world. Be sure to view this set using Flickr’s slide show feature to get the full impact and the ability to see at full screen.

Like her portraits, some work is more effective than others because there’s a tendency in the Flickr world that more is better. Another favorite is the “South Hill” set that is full of the kind of quiet landscapes exemplified in the film Local Color, which is about representational art—among other things. You’ll see similarly styled images albeit with a few more crescendos in the musical images collected in the “Rivers and Water” set. The kind of photographs that Green paints with her lens never failed to surprise me; just when you think you have her style nailed down she darts off on a new and different, less traveled path and that’s what makes looking at all of the images in her photostream so interesting and so much fun.

© 2010, Isabelle Ann Green, All Rights Reserved
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